Categories

 

January 2012
M T W T F S S
« Feb    
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Astronomy 101

Astronomy in general is a huge subject, as vast as the universe it describes. Limiting to star astronomy still leaves a lot of things to cover. There is more than a single person could study in a lifetime just in our own solar system. That’s why many people decide to focus their attention on the stars.

Star astronomy begins about 94 million miles from Earth, with our own sun. Consider what the sun feels like on a hot day, imagine how hot it is up close. The sun contains about 98% of the mass in our entire solar system. That takes into account everything, the rocks, material, even the very large Jupiter and Saturn in all their moons. The sun could hold over 1.3 million Earths. The sun’s core has 340 billion times the pressure of the earth and temperatures there reach 27,000,000°F. Try that for a grill, George Foreman.

The sun is the most studied star we know. The next nearest star is 250,000 times further from Earth. Star astronomy gets interesting when you consider all of those stars out there. From Earth a person with good eyes can see 5000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy. With telescopes many more of the over 1 x 10^22 stars in the universe (that’s an estimate) can be seen. If you’re counting that’s a one followed by 22 zeros. In fact, even a small telescope opens the eyes of an amateur star astronomy enthusiast to hundreds of thousands of stars. Wow! Larger telescopes can bring over 200 billion stars into view. Just counting that many is a lifetime of work.

Through star astronomy, scientists have now shown that many stars have plants. Planets cause stars to wobble, and that can be measured. In 2008, for the first time, astronomers took visible light photographs of planets orbiting distant suns. We are ever closer to finding intelligent life.

Will we have a run-in with Romulans next month? Not likely. But star astronomy will keep on going. Maybe it also continues somewhere on another planet Maybe someone on one of those other planets is watching us!

Astronomy Fun Facts

Astronomy is a fun science filled with many astronomy fun facts. Information such as though a planet’s orbit other stars, were the way galaxies are made up, is included. Bees facts can be entertaining and enlightening.

Astronomy fun facts about our own star, the sun, are almost endless. Measurements show it between 91 and 94.5 million miles from Earth. It isn’t that scientists don’t know. The Earth’s orbit isn’t circular. The distance between us grows larger and smaller throughout the year.

Astronomy fun facts about our average sized sun’s size. It’s contains 98% of all the stuff in the solar system, even though it’s not large for a star. Everything else, counting the earth and all the planets, is a tiny 2%. It would take about 100 Earths to make it across this average sun. An AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The solar winds extend 50 AU’s from the sun.

Shall we turn to some astronomy fun facts that don’t have to do with the sun? How about the moon? It’s the only other space object, besides the earth, over which man has walked. One fellow went there and stayed. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker was rejected as an astronaut. In 1999, after his death of course, his ashes were spread onto the moon.

The moon abounds with more astronomy fun facts. Ralph Kramden, in the hit TV series Honeymooners, constantly threatened to send his wife to the moon. In 1988 13% of people questioned believed the moon is made of cheese. The spacesuits worn by the moon astronauts weighed a whopping 180 pounds on earth, but only 30 pounds on the moon. That is a big difference.

Astronomy fun facts aren’t limited to our close neighbors. Stars bring the past to life. Some of the stars we see today in the night sky are so far away that light takes a million years to reach us from them. Some of those stars you see may really be images of stars a million years old that aren’t even there in the present. There are over 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe. That’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros. The number is staggering.

There are even more astronomy fun facts. However, this article must come to an end. Learn more for yourself.

Astronomy News